Father was a teenager. He was 16 years old. Even though no one told him to do it, he always got up early to pray before he went to school. He was very serious.

One Easter morning he awoke before the sun came up. He put on his clothes and climbed a nearby mountain. Then he began his morning prayer. He didn’t pray for new clothes or fancy foods or even a bigger bowl of rice. Instead, Father prayed for the suffering Koreans. He prayed that he could understand all about God, all about Jesus, and all about the world.

"I pray that I can be very wise so I can help other people," he prayed over and over. "I pray that I can have the greatest faith in all the world. I pray that I can have the most love, even more love than Jesus."

After a long time, something happened that made this the most important Easter of all. Suddenly, standing there before him was a man! He seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

"Hello," said this man, "Do you recognize me? I am your friend, Jesus."

Father was shocked. He couldn’t speak. "Can this be true?" he thought. "Is this actually happening, or am I dreaming?" Jesus looked real enough, but Father wanted to be sure. Then he was able to understand that it really was Jesus, because suddenly, like a movie before his eyes, Father started seeing all the things that had happened in Jesus’ life. He saw how Jesus was born in a stable, how he preached on a mountainside, how he healed the sick, how he died on the cross—everything!

Then Jesus said to him, "I came to earth almost 2,000 years ago to save the world from Satan. I was the Messiah. I wanted to make this world into a beautiful and loving place where everyone could be happy. But they killed me before I could finish my work. Now, another person must be the Messiah and finish my work for me. I will help that person. I have come to you today, Sun Myung Moon, to tell you that God has chosen you to be this very special person."

Father listened very carefully, feeling a bit stunned. He had asked to understand all about God and the world. But to be the Messiah? This was much more than he had asked for. He felt humbled. He took it very seriously."

This is an enormous responsibility," he prayed with a most sincere heart. "I want to do Your will, God, more than anything else in the world. I do want to live my life for You. But I don’t want to take this responsibility lightly. If I say I’ll do it, then I must be absolutely determined to really do it." He prayed for guidance. He wanted to understand what God really wanted of him. He prayed for a long, long time. Then Father began to feel achy and miserable all over. He began to cry. The tears came faster and faster. Soon he was sobbing. "Oh, it hurts so much," he cried to God. "My heart is aching. I feel like I can never stop crying. Why is this?"

He bent over in pain. He was feeling the pain that had been in God’s heart for so long. He was feeling the misery of all the people who had suffered while on earth. He was feeling the pain of the Korean people who had suffered for many, many years. He began to really understand why God needed him so much. He knew he could never turn away from God’s sad heart and all the unhappy people in the world.

That day he made a commitment before God. "I WILL take responsibility for this important work. I will use my whole life for overcoming evil in the world. I want it to be a beautiful, happy garden again." From that moment, no matter how much he suffered or how tired and discouraged he became, Father never changed his mind. He never said, "It’s just too much for one man to do." Instead, he always said, "I’m determined to do it."

After that Easter morning, even though Jesus said he and God would help Father, they left him on his own for many years. Father had to do the first part all by himself.

But what should he do first? He said to himself, "I’ve agreed to finish Jesus’ work. But how do I start? Do I just tell everyone I’m the Messiah?"

Every day he prayed and prayed and prayed. He would often go to a certain mountain to pray. Even when he was sleepy and hungry, he would keep on praying. Sometimes he walked along a riverside—thinking, praying, thinking, praying. Other times, he felt so desperate, he would kneel down and pound the earth with his fists." HOW do I save these people from Satan? GOD! Please show me what to do."

He shouted. He cried. "God, if You are there, who are You, anyway?" What are You like? Why are You there? Why did You create us? What relationship are we supposed to have with You? PLEASE, PLEASE tell me!" His fists kept pounding the earth. His tears flowed. Finally, one day God gave him an answer. "We’re supposed to be like a Father and a son."

As Father prayed he began to understand how important this was. "Oh, yes! God is our Father. He is Heavenly Father. I am His son. All people are His children. That’s it! The most important truth in the whole universe! Oh, thank You, my Heavenly Father. Thank You."

Then came his next question. "So what went wrong? Why don’t we have a close Father/son relationship? Why aren’t we one big happy family? Was it Satan? But who is Satan? Where did he come from? You are only good. Satan is bad. You wouldn’t create anything bad, would You?"

"No, I wouldn’t," answered Heavenly Father, but He had to leave it up to Father to find out what had gone wrong." Then how did evil get here? Couldn’t you just destroy it? You’re all-powerful. Why do you let evil stay here? Why? Why? Why?"

He had so many questions, and it was so hard to get answers. God couldn’t just tell him the answers. Father had to figure it out himself, and then ask if it was true. Little by little, he was able to learn many things about God, about the world, about Jesus, and more.

Then he had another problem: Satan. As Father learned more and more, Satan became more and more worried. "Hey," he snarled, "If this guy learns about what happened in the Garden of Eden, I’m doomed. I’ve gotta put a stop to this nonsense. Not since Jesus came to earth have I had such a headache."

Satan tried desperately to stop Father. He told him lies. He tried to deceive Father and make him think there was no such thing as Satan. He tried to tempt Father to stop his work. He tried to make Father see how much he would suffer if he kept this up, and how much happier he could be if he just went home. Satan was very clever. But Father was always more clever. He would catch Satan at his tricks.

Satan even tried to beat him up. He tried to crush Father. He was very strong, and he got other evil spirits to help him. They fought a bloody battle. But Father was so determined and so strong that he won!

Father really started questioning Satan then. "What did you do against God?" he shouted. "What did you do to Adam and Eve?" Satan refused to answer. He just folded his arms and stared at Father with an ugly smirk on his face.

So Father had to guess. "Were you a person?" Satan just shook his head and sneered." Were you an angel?" Satan looked very angry, but he had to admit that, yes, he was an angel.

Father was too much for him. He got more and more of the truth out of Satan. He even began to understand how Satan had felt in the Garden of Eden."

You must have been lonesome, right?" asked Father. "Yes," admitted Satan." You must have wanted to be with Adam and Eve, right?"

"Yes!" Satan was squirming. "You were happier with Eve than with Adam, weren’t you?" "Yes, yes!" Satan was very upset. He tried to escape. But Father fought with him, made him listen, made him answer. Bit by bit, Father got the whole story out of him. Satan was furious. Father had learned all about his secret crime, and not even Jesus had been able to do that before!

For nine years—starting at age 16—Father worked on learning all about God’s universe. He even learned about spirit world. He was the first person to understand that God had been suffering because of what Satan had done.

"Oh, Heavenly Father," he prayed. "You had no mouth for telling us how You felt. You had no arms for hugging us. You had no legs for chasing after us when we ran away with Satan. If one of Your children was hurting, You couldn’t do anything about it. All You could do was feel the pain Yourself and cry and cry. Oh, poor Heavenly Father! I’m so sorry no one could comfort You all these years!"

Over and over he cried to Heavenly Father, "I’ll never leave You. I just want to work for You and make You feel better." Father couldn’t stop crying. Day after day, night after night, he cried. His face became so swollen from the tears that, at times, his neighbors couldn’t even recognize him.

This was all very important to Heavenly Father and Jesus. Father’s tears helped them feel a little better. At last, someone understood how they felt. They loved Father very, very much.

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